


The Song in Your Bones

by LovelyRaptor



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Angst, Anthropology, Death, Domestic Fluff, Eddie is still a mess, F/F, F/M, It's a love story, M/M, Music, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slice of Life, Slow Build, canon typical cannibalism, eventual dramatic plot, eventually, science talk, symbrock if you squint
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-08-24 12:59:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16640585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyRaptor/pseuds/LovelyRaptor
Summary: Eddie finally has his life back together, or, at least he's trying really hard. It's easier said than done when you have a being from the stars shacking up in your body. But they've got a new apartment, a decent relationship with Anne and Dan, and an anthropologist neighbor who seems like she could make a great companion. But when she starts investigating the headless body found in the neighborhood, Eddie's secret might become compromised.





	1. Nova

**Author's Note:**

> In this writing I do tend to refer to Venom as he/him when I'm not speaking about Eddie in conjunction with Venom. I appreciate those who feel as though Venom is a they/them without gender though. Everyone has their own views on the symbiote's gender, and in a later chapter I'll have a big long discussion about why (in this fic anyways) Venom and Eddie both view Venom as he/him.

Eddie bid goodbye to Anne and Dan, turning to look at the few boxes stacked neatly in the middle of his new apartment. He couldn’t stop the twinge of bitterness that welled up in his chest at the memory of Anne’s all too casual statement while she and Dan were helping him get what few items he had left moved into the new, much nicer apartment.

_ “Dan and I are engaged now… I thought it would be better for you to be the first to know, other than our parents of course.” _

But the happiness in her voice as she chatted about wedding plans and the light in her smile had caused him to smile, and give her a friendly hug of congratulations. He liked Dan, he really did. And if Anne was happy, then Eddie could live just fine, even if her happiness no longer relied on him. But that didn’t mean he was above his own human emotions, and he admitted to himself that he was a little less than thrilled with the marriage announcement. He opened one box absentmindedly, pulling out his half-dead plant (that had amazingly survived the trip), a stack of notebooks, and some throw pillows for the new couch that hadn’t arrived yet. He mumbled under his breath, something about how stupid the idea of attempting to decorate the apartment was, tossing the pillows to the corner of the room.

He could feel the light tug at the back if his mind, something that was ever present since he found that his symbiote partner was in fact not gone, only hibernating and healing quietly inside him. He could feel Venom’s slight confusion, he could even feel him pulling through his memories in search of an answer to something he didn’t quite understand.

**You were once engaged to Anne,** he pointed out.

“Yeah,” Eddie replied simply, comfortable to speak out loud in the privacy of the apartment. He could feel more pulling.

**Engagement leads to… marriage,** he mused.  **Anne will not being coming back to us** . It was a statement, not a question. Venom seemed to grasp the idea of marriage, though he didn’t understand it fully, just enough to know that it was, for the most part, a very permanent arrangement. Eddie sighed, and continued to unpack. His feelings were conflicted, and knew that his symbiote could feel it. Anne had already figured out that Venom was alive despite Eddie trying to hide it. He slipped up one night when he was over for dinner, and Venom had attempted to reach out with a tendril to grab the steak raw out of the package before it could be cooked. Anne caught them, proceeded to scold them for the possibility of getting Eddie very sick, and for lying, but then expressed her happiness that he was alive, and that Eddie was no longer alone. Perhaps knowing this is what drove her to agree to marrying Dan, knowing that Eddie had someone who cared about whether or not he was functioning properly.

Venom mused, slinking down Eddie’s spine, through his ribs, before settling in his stomach. To any normal person, the feeling of movement within their body would have been extremely unsettling, but not to Eddie. Moving around was something Venom did often throughout the day. He had once told Eddie that he was simply making checks to his vital system, or he was tired of sitting in one spot after a while.

**Eating will make you feel better.**

“And what exactly are you wanting to eat right now? I don’t have the toaster hooked up yet, so no tots and no eggo waffles.” Eddie could feel the annoyance spreading from Venom, who still didn’t understand why his human insisted that tater tots and waffles were something that had to be cooked and warm in order for it to be enjoyed.

**Eat it anyways. No need to cook.**

“No. The last time you made me eat frozen waffles my teeth hurt for 3 days. Then you were mad at me for not wanting to eat anything other than mashed potatoes because I couldn't chew.” 

**I’ll fix it this time. Hungry.** The last bit came out as more of a whine than he imagined Venom intended it to be. A pang of hunger twisted in his stomach, not that he could tell if it was his own or the alien’s. 

“Tell you what, wait until the furniture is delivered, then I’ll take you out to Mrs. Chen’s for the special chocolate,” Eddie compromised. Venom hummed his approval of the idea, and Eddie was able to go back to unpacking, trying not to think of Anne, engaged to someone other than him.

 

* * *

  
  


“Hello Mrs. Chen,” Eddie said for what must have been the 100th time. She smiled sweetly from behind the counter.

“How are you two doing today?” she asked, as if it were a normal thing to say to only one person. She wasn’t going to lie to herself, the alien living inside of Eddie had scared her at first. But as she came to know them, she found herself more relaxed. As an added plus, no more gang members had come to bother her since Venom had eaten their leader.

“Pretty good,” he paused. “Always hungry though,” he grumped, walking through the aisles. Since no one was around, Venom reached out a few strands of himself to brush against the shelves, contemplating what he could talk Eddie into buying. As if he knew what Venom was thinking (and being connected to him mentally meant he most likely did);

“We came here for chocolate, I’m not getting you anything else you greedy parasite.” Venom hissed and redirected the tendrils towards his host’s face, which Eddie promptly swatted away. They could hear Mrs. Chen laughing in the background at their antics.

**Take it back.**

“No, I think I’m good.”

**You will take it back!** Eddie suddenly felt his legs anchor to the ground, and he was unable to move.

“Let me go or you won’t be eating anything for a week,” he warned.

**I’ll just have to eat your pancreas then.** Eddie felt a sharp rippling sensation in his abdomen, and even though he knew Venom was mostly joking, he relented.

“Fine, I take it back. Here’s your chocolate, asshole,” he muttered as he regained control of his legs and made his way to the counter. In passing, he noticed a bowl of instant ramen, and knowing that he probably should eat more than just chocolate tonight, he grabbed and placed it with the bag of Lindor milk chocolate truffles. He popped one in his mouth on the way out of the door, and began walking to his new home. 

This apartment was closer to Mrs. Chen’s shop than the previous one, for the exact reason that he could never could seem to keep food around the house for long, and was forever having to go to the store. This unit was on the first floor, which Venom didn’t like very much, but it was what was available. And for Eddie it meant that his other wasn’t constantly trying to coax him into jumping out of the window. Venom was oddly quiet on the way home, either still bristling from the parasite comment, or content with his chocolate. As they entered the apartment complex and walked down the hall towards his place, he noticed a banging noise, and a frustrated grunt. Upon turning the corner, he saw what he assumed was his across the hall neighbor. Her back was to him, but he could tell that her hands were full, and that she was struggling to get her door open. Just as he got closer, one of the box she had stacked precariously in her arms along with grocery and take out bags fell. Thankfully she was too preoccupied with her lock to notice the black tendrils that shot out and caught the box, before he took it in his own hands, standing behind her.

At this point she had noticed the lost weight on her stack, and turned to see Eddie standing behind her. She seemed startled by his sudden proximity at first, but then laughed at her own clumsiness.

“Thank you,” she said breathily, as she struggled to reposition her hands so she could take the box back. Instead of handing it back to her, Eddie took the other bags, much to her surprise.

“No problem. Here, go ahead and get the door open, then you can have these back,” he smiled back, hoping it was a nice one and not an ear splitting one that the symbiote sometimes liked to pull out for no other reason than he found Eddie’s embarrassment about the reactions he got out of it funny. She regarded him with pale green eyes, before huffing a piece of white-blonde hair off of her forehead, deciding that the man’s intentions seemed in the right place. She fumbled through her purse for her keys.

“You’re the new guy? The one who lives across the hall?” she asked, finally finding the keys, and going to put them in the lock. “I’m Nova,” she offered as an afterthought. 

“Yeah, Eddie Brock.” He winced as his last name slipped out as a habit. Recognition lit her face as she swung the door open.

“The reporter?” she asked, reaching for her items. As he passed them to her, the box manage to tip, and open, and to contents spilled out. She looked horrified as a human skull rolled it’s way across the floor and stopped at Eddie’s feet. “I am so sorry! It’s just for my work,” she stuttered, rushing to grab the contents of the box before he saw anything else.

**Is that what you would look like without a face?** Eddie almost jumped out of his skin, Venom had been quiet for so long. Of course he would pick now to become verbal.

“Must be some pretty interesting work,” Eddie laughed, picking up the skull carefully before handing it to her, doing his best to ignore the nagging feeling in his brain.

“Um, yeah.” Her cheeks flushed pink behind a spattering of freckles.

**You find the blushing cute.** Eddie could feel Venom moving to get a better view of her from inside his mind.  **She smells nice. Like death.** A confused look passed his face. He didn’t smell anything, except maybe a hint of citrus. Thankfully, the current situation warranted the confused look.

“What work might that be exactly?” he pushed. 

“Anthropology. I uh… study dead people sometimes. She’s one of my more recent cases.” Nova shifted uncomfortably, waiting for him to freak out like most people did when she started talking about bodies. She felt awkward, standing in the hallways with her specimen partially exposed, and her groceries sitting in the doorway. He looked more interested than anything, like he might try to ask her more questions about it, which she wasn’t sure if she would like or if she didn’t want him to ask. She decided on the second.

“Look, it’s kind of late, and I still need to eat and…” she trailed off, again unsure if she wanted to talk to him or make him leave.

“Yeah sure, sorry about dropping the box,” he said sheepishly, turning to leave. While he had been hoping to be more cordial with his new neighbor than with the last, he certainly hadn’t planned on meeting them under such awkward circumstances. He could feel Venom’s curiosity bubbling under his skin.

“You could take me out for coffee to make it up to me,” she blurted, internally flinching at her knee jerk reaction. No going back now. “5pm tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, see you then.” Eddie watched her scurry into her unit, before heading back to his own.

 

* * *

  
  


Venom was once again swirling around his insides. 

**She is named after an exploding star.**

“I know what a nova is. It’s a pretty name though. Now hush, I’m trying to go to sleep.”

**You should tell her that tomorrow on your date.**

“It isn’t a date,” Eddie grumbled, rolling onto his stomach. “It’s just two adults going out for coffee and to talk. It makes sense she’d want to know more about her new neighbor.” He flipped over his pillow, relishing in the coolness of it.

**Three adults,** Venom corrected, pulling through Eddie’s memories.  **And it is a date. It’s what you and Anne used to do, and you did it with potential partners before Anne.**

“You just really needed to bring that up huh? It’s not a date, she didn’t say it was a date, so it’s not, and that’s the end of this discussion. Now settle down and stop picking at my brain.” He felt the symbiote move itself down to the center of his chest, his typical spot of choice for sleeping. At least, Eddie assumed he was sleeping. He didn’t exactly know if Venom slept, or just entered a low power mode.

**We keep watch,** **sometimes we sleep,** was the reply he got to his thoughts. Occasionally, he forgot that everything he thought about was heard. 

“And we’re sleeping now. Night V.”

**Goodnight Eddie. You need to be rested for your date.**

“IT’S NOT A DATE!”

 


	2. The NOT Date

It had been close to a year since Eddie really cared about what he looked like. After Anne left he had really let himself go, and while he had cleaned himself up considerably since then, his current work consisted of writing in his apartment where no one could see him, which was fine by him. He was currently standing in only jeans, tossing his gaze between a blue checkered button up, and a forest green collared T-Shirt. He ran a hand down his face, stopping at his chin and rubbing the hairs there. Should he shave before he left? The alarm clock on his bedside table glowed red. 4:45pm. A wet, almost prickling sensation spread across his right shoulder, and he sighed when a light breath tickled his ear. He turned to the ever grinning face, the opalescent curved eyes gazing thoughtfully over his shoulder, even though it should be impossible for there to be any discernible emotion on the symbiote’s face.

**Like the blue. It’s cold. Long sleeves and a jacket would be best.** Somehow, Venom always knew the temperature outside, even when they were in a controlled inner environment. Contemplating if he was going to take fashion advice from the alien perched on his shoulder, he shrugged, and pulled on the blue checkered button up causing Venom to pull back into his skin. He moved into the bathroom, and used an electric razor to at least make his beard more of a clean stubble as opposed to a straggly scattering of hairs. When he was finished, he slipped on his shoes and grabbed his leather jacket.

“Okay bud,” he started. “This is a _me_ thing, not a _we_ thing, got it?”

**Will there be food?**

“No, it’s just coffee. We can go out tonight though, how about that?” He almost felt sick to his stomach, knowing exactly what going out tonight meant his cannibalistic buddy would be doing. Well, maybe it wasn’t cannibalistic to Venom. But over time he’d learned that living with him was all about compromise. And he really wanted this to go well, despite the fact that it _wasn’t a date_. Venom thrummed from somewhere along his spine, causing him to do a strange wiggle.

“Don’t do that while I’m out, she’ll think there’s something wrong with me.”

**But Eddie, there is something wrong with you. You have an alien parasite living inside your body.**

“What?! How come you get to say the p word but when I do it you get all huffy?” Silence. “Whatever, just please behave yourself.” He stepped out of the apartment, took a breath, and walked up to Nova’s door. He was halfway into his second knock when the door swung open. Upon finding no one close eye level, he looked down, startled at the little pair of pale green eyes looking up at him through chocolate brown bangs.

“Who’re you?” she asked sweetly. Just ask he stooped down to give her an answer, a rush of feet shuffling on hardwood came from the back of the apartment, followed by a stern,

“Luella I thought I told you to never _ever_ answer the door unless I ask you to!” Nova rounded the living room and scooped up the small child. Eddie noticed that she only had one earring in, and her ponytail was falling to one side. “Oh! Eddie. Shoot, I didn’t realize what time it was.” She shifted who he assumed was Luella onto a hip and beckoned him in, closing the door behind them.

**Why is there a tiny human here?** Eddie pretended he didn’t hear anything.

“Auntie Nova who’s that?” The child was looking at him through eyes that matched her aunt’s. Nova set her down.

**What is an auntie?**

_What did we talk about?_ His thought hit Venom a bit more harshly than intended, but he found that if he didn’t think loudly enough, the thought would be ignored and jumbled up with everything else that wove constantly through his mind. Venom seemed annoyed, but settled down nonetheless, thoughts of the meal that would come later sating him into temporary compliance.

“Luella, this is Eddie Brock. Eddie, Luella. Now why don’t you go watch your show for right now okay love?” She pushed Luella in the direction of the living room. “I’m so sorry,” she turned towards Eddie. “The sitter must be running late. I’m sure it’ll only be a few minutes.” She moved into the kitchen and he followed, seating himself on a barstool. She handed him a glass of water. “Just, wait here.” She moved down the hallway and he heard a room door shut.

The apartment was slightly larger than his own. The walls were mostly tan, with a warm orange accent wall. Knick-knacks and books decorated the dark wooden shelves scattered around the walls and on the two bookcases that stood on either side of the television. Not to his surprise, there were lots of bones. Some animal skeletons on display, put together, positioned, and labeled. There were even what he could surmise to be some ancient human skulls, used as bookends on two of the wall shelves. A small piano was pushed against the left wall of the living room, a small variety of instruments leaning against it. The box from yesterday was sitting on the kitchen table.

There was an abrupt knock on the door, followed by Luella getting up. Nova barely made it down the hallway and to the entrance to grab her before she opened the door, _again_. She gave her with a stern look, a swat on her bum, and a command to go sit and finish watching her show. She invited the sitter in, informed her of where dinner was, in the fridge ready to be heated, along with a slip of paper with her number on it should anything happen.

“I’ll be back before bedtime,” she said, leaning to kiss Luella on the top of the head. The child, pouting from the earlier scolding, gave her a slow nod and didn’t look away from the television. “Let’s go.”

The walk to the cafe was pleasant. The leaves on the trees that lined the streets were just yellowing, and a crisp breeze rustled a few to the ground. Eddie was thankful for Venom’s advice regarding his clothing. Any less than the layers he had and he would have been cold. Not that Venom would have allowed that though. Nova had opted for something warm as well, an olive green oversized knit cardigan over a tied up white shirt and dark blue jeans. The heels of her brown suede thigh-high boots clicked against the sidewalk as they walked. She had obtained her other earing, dangly dark orange feathers. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, with light blonde curls falling to frame either side of her face. With her hair up, he could take note of her other, multiple ear piercings, shining gold in the sunlight. More in one ear than the other, and a thin gold ring looped her left nostril. The bun itself, like the earlier ponytail, was a bit to the right, Maybe she just didn’t like things to be symmetrical? They made small talk about the weather as they walked. Eddie worried that the idle conversation was going nowhere fast.

“If I had known you were watching your niece this weekend, I would have been happy to reschedule,” he said, hoping it would engage a more interesting conversation. Nova seemed to stumble a bit, but acted like it didn’t happen.

“Oh, no. I’m not watching Luella. She lives with me. I’m her legal guardian.” She sighed when the look on Eddie’s face hinted that he wanted more explanation into the subject, but was being too polite to ask. It wasn’t like she was embarrassed about it, it was usually just not something she opened with when she was getting to know someone. She let a moment of silence pass before continuing.

“When Luella was born her mother, my brother’s wife, was very sick. The stress on her body killed her. Then two years ago, Orion was diagnosed with stage 3 Osteosarcoma, bone cancer” she paused. “Orion was my brother. He fought for a year, for Luella. She only had the two of us after all. No grandparents to speak of, and Karen didn’t have any siblings. Anyways, he passed last year, and Luella was only 5, so here we are. She’s not as much a brat as she made herself out to be earlier.” Nova laughed lightly, hoping to lessen the gravity of the situation she was in. Telling this story usually left a bad taste in other’s mouths, and they never were really able to look her in the eye after finding out.

Eddie contemplated the story he had inadvertently made her tell. There was a sour knot in his stomach from it. Something not missed by Venom, who grew restless at his host’s burst of empathy. Eddie felt bad for Nova. Taking on a kid was a big deal. Hell, he could hardly handle that damn cat Anne had wanted so badly the day he made the mistake of going to the local shelter with her. He also felt bad for that little girl, sitting back at the apartment watching Frozen. He turned to face Nova as they entered the coffee shop, and she seemed taken aback from the simple fact that he looked her in the eyes when he offered his condolences. She shrugged it off, stating that it had happened a while ago, and that life was what it was, and that death was an inevitable part of that. But she was trying to hide the smile playing at the corners of her lips.

_This one is different._

 

* * *

 

  
The rest of the evening went surprisingly well, much to Eddie’s satisfaction. He managed to get her speak more about her work, a smile passing his lips at the way her tone brightened while she talked about radiating microfractures and bone markers. She spoke about death with ease, especially for some who had lost someone not so long ago. But Eddie understood on a different level, considering he had technically died about 5 months ago. Venom stirred uneasily in his ribs at the memory, quiet, but an ever present comfort. He drank his coffee black, much to the other’s disdain. He wanted hot chocolate, not this bitter bean juice, but still he behaved. The smell of cinnamon ran out of Nova’s cup as she popped off the lid and put about 6 packets of sugar into it. Eddie watched in amusement.

“You have a sweet tooth?” he asked, sipping the bitter liquid from his own cup. She stumbled mid-packet-pour, red creeping around her ears and staining her cheeks.

“It’s a possibility.” Despite her obvious embarrassment at being caught with her multitude of raw sugar packets, her tone was mischievous. She stirred her tea, sipped, decided it was good, and replaced the lid. “So, what about your work? Taking down some of the most prominent multi-million dollar corporations must be exciting.”

“It was. I mostly just write for columns now though.”

“Investigative columns,” Nova added, pulling the cup to her face simply for the warmth of it, peering at him over the lid. “I looked you up last night. Had to make sure I wasn’t going out with a psycho killer or something,” she joked, eyes crinkling at the corners from the smile hidden by the white paper cup. Eddie had to refrain from choking on his coffee. She had no idea how close she had hit on what he could be sometimes. Soft piano music played from the speakers hidden overhead.

“Well, I do enjoy unraveling mysteries, drawing the public eye to injustice. Things like that,” he smiled.

“A real 21st century hero,” she smiled back. She didn’t know how close she’d hit that on the nose as well. The conversation drifted, from work, to life experiences. Speaking with Nova was surprisingly easy, and it suddenly hit him that he hadn’t been out with someone for a year. Eddie felt like he was doing quite well, as they gathered their things and started on the walk back to the apartment. A soft rain had started, and Nova pulled her cardigan closer in response.

**Give her your jacket. Girls like that. I read it on the internet.** Eddie didn’t want to think about the fact that he gave Venom access to the entire internet too much, but the alien had a point. And with his own personal heater sitting inside of him, he didn’t have much need for the clothing article. He slipped it off and held it out over her head, using it to shield her from the rain. She looked up at him, grateful. In this moment he realized exactly how _small_ Nova really was. He stood at around 6’1, which made him by no means the biggest guy around. And the top of her head stood a good 6 to 7 inches below his, minus the bun. The darkness coupled with the street lighting and the rain made her skin seem paler than it had in the warm light of the cafe. He contemplated how she spoke about life and death, wondering exactly how fragile humans were. Quite fragile was the conclusion he had made as her nose turned a bit red from the cold. He could feel agreement radiating from the back of his mind.

They walked briskly, but only due to the rain. The silence they shared was a comfortable one. They entered the apartment building, Nova flicking water off of herself despite Eddie’s best efforts of keeping her dry. He, on the other hand, was soaked, his hair dripping on the floor. Though it wasn’t raining hard, it was a solid 10 minute walk back. Nova smiled up at him, and he was trying to figure out if it was because she was happy or if him being wet at her expense amused her on some level.

“You know, for the rough and tumble reporter you try to be, you actually aren’t half-bad.”

“Gee, thanks,” he scoffed, shuffling his feet. Unsure what to do next. Usually after a good date, you hugged, sometimes even kissed. But this wasn’t a date, and he wasn’t sure about what to do about that. She hesitated, before grabbing his hand and squeezing lightly before letting go.

“Thanks for the coffee, well, tea actually,” she said, stepping into her doorway.

“Yeah, it was nice to get to know you.”

“You’ll have to let me pay next time,” she smiled, and closed the door.

“Next time?” The corners of his mouth twitched at the thought, and he retreated into his own apartment.

 

* * *

 

  
He waited about 2 hours before re-emerging from his unit. Enough time for him to hear the babysitter leave, and for any hint of noise and movement in the apartment across the hall to cease. It was 11pm. Venom slithered under his skin in excitement has he walked down the dark allies, biding his time. The longer he walked (about an hour total) the more sketchy the area became. While he didn’t allow the symbiote out fully just yet, he did let him take over his senses. His muscles tensed as he neared a particularly menacing dark alley, and his ears perked. Venom knew the sound of a violent crime when he heard one. Eddie looked at his hands, watching the veins run black as he relinquished control of his body, and Venom engulfed him fully, letting out a strange screech/roar has he approached the the offenders. 3 of them.

_Good,_ Eddie thought, mentally drowning out the sounds of their screams and the feeling of bones breaking in Venom’s hands and the sickening crunch in his teeth. _At least you won’t be hungry for awhile._

 


	3. Eddie Brock: Babysitter Extraordinaire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So people actually commented and bookmarked and left kudos?! I honestly just posted this on a whim without thinking anyone would be interested in it, so thank you! I hope you all continue to enjoy this work :)

The struggle of what he was now had been eating at his insides, which were currently experiencing the feeling of what equaled out to be slime, sliding around his organs and thrumming happily. Eddie sighed in annoyance.

“What did we talk about? I told you a house robber isn’t committing a capital offense. I agreed to just spooking him away, not tearing his head off,” he hissed into his jacket collar. Venom moved up his spine and wound himself around his left, second rib. (A term he could now use thanks to Nova’s talk about her studies)

**He was going to rob an old lady’s place. Not very nice... Tasted good.** The last part was more of an afterthought. Eddie scrubbed his hand across his face.

“We don’t do that, especially not in broad daylight. And we left evidence.” The poor robber’s scream right as Venom’s maw chomped down against his neck from above was loud enough to disturb the neighboring duplex, and they had to run quickly, leaving the body behind. Eddie hated leaving behind evidence. Venom hated leaving behind good food.

Eddie turned into his apartment, tossing the jacket onto the grey sofa, which still didn’t have the throw pillows on it. He wasn’t mad at Venom persay. He’d learned a while ago that being mad about it wasn’t going to get him anywhere, and he understood that the creature’s dietary needs weren’t entirely his choice. Kind of like people who couldn’t eat dairy, or gluten. His alien symbiote just needed human brains, and living organs. While it was gross, and in the early days he found himself barfing when he returned home from a night out, he had managed to -somewhat- come to terms with it. Somewhat.

**We could always go back to consuming** **_your_ ** **organs.** Eddie knew that joking about eating his host accounted to a fun pastime for Venom, but he couldn’t help the tiny rivet of fear that ran up his spine. While Venom always took care of Eddie on some level, if he wanted to he could destroy the human on a whim. But he also knew that Venom wouldn’t ever do that. Partly out of self preservation, but mostly because they honestly cared about each other. The week spent thinking Venom was gone left him feeling worse than when Anne left him, and the relief he felt upon hearing the rumbling voice in his head was probably the happiest he could ever remember feeling. His feeling were reciprocated.

There was more shifting, until he could feel a weight pressed against the base of his skull.  **Will we see Nova tomorrow?** His “not dates” with his neighbor had been going on for almost 3 months now, as it was nearing the end of October. Every Friday night at 5. A couple times they had gone out to a Sunday lunch as well, but for most most part it was the cafe on Fridays. He had eventually given up on seeming manly and had started ordering hot chocolate. One time, Luella had accompanied them, excited that they both liked the same drink, and he managed to somewhat bond with the child over that. 

Eddie wouldn’t go so far as to say he didn’t like kids, he just wasn’t sure what to do with them. At one point he had wanted one, but Anne didn’t, and he had let the idea go.

“Tomorrow’s Friday, isn’t it?” was his reply. He grabbed a beer out of his fridge, despite the other’s protest.

**You keep ruining our liver on purpose. One day I’ll stop fixing it.**

“Hush up, drama queen. One isn’t going to ruin us.” He took a sip, settling into the couch with the intent to turn on the cable box. A slimy black tendril had just placed the remote in his hand when there was a knock. It retreated back into his wrist as Eddie went to go answer the door. It was Nova.

“I’m so sorry to bother you,” she started. She was slightly out of breath, and almost looked panicked. “I just got a call from work, telling me a body just came in, and I can’t get ahold of Luella’s sitter, and I can’t leave her home alone because I don’t know when I’ll be home tonight, and if I’m not there in exactly 30 minutes they’re gonna pass the case on to Cueler, and I need the hours, and I don’t need that asshole rubbing it in my face next week at the staff halloween party, and I-” she still hadn’t stopped to breathe when Eddie cut her off.

“Easy there,” he held his hands up. “What do you need from me exactly?” She had been talking so fast he could barely comprehend the reason she had come knocking. She breathed in.

“Could you watch Luella tonight? I promise I’ll try to be back before she goes to bed. And there’s food in the freezer, and all of her homework is done already, you just basically have to watch Paw Patrol with her until I’m done.” She paused. “Please?”

Eddie contemplated for a moment, before nodding and going to grab his shoes and phone charger. “Yeah, sure. That shouldn’t be a problem.” He choked on the word problem when she practically jump to hug him, crushing his ribs in the process.

“Oh, thank you! I told her to behave or else, so she’ll probably behave,” she released him, shoving her spare apartment keys and a crumpled $50 dollar bill into his hand. “I’ll be back,” she yelled, making it down the hall and out the buildings outer door before he could protest about the money.

 

* * *

 

Nova hadn’t been entirely wrong about the watching Paw Patrol with Luella bit. The six-year-old was sitting in front of the glass coffee table, swinging a doll through the air as if it were flying while the dog themed show played in the background. Eddie handed her a juice box with the straw already in, before plopping on the brown leather sofa, sticking a straw into his own juice box, and preoccupying his mind by scrolling through news stories on his phone. It was 6 o’clock before the child stirred, walking over to him and climbing up onto the couch.

“I’m hungry now Mr. Brock,” was her explanation. Eddie looked down at her. Even though he’d told her two times she could just call him Eddie, she insisted that she had been taught that calling people by Mr./Mrs. and their last name was more polite.

**Hungry,** Venom echoed, sending a vibration into Eddie’s stomach.

“Alright,” he stretched and stood up, watching the child bounce off of the couch and waddle into the kitchen. “What do we want…” he mused, not sure if he was referring to the child, or the entity that was him and Venom.

“Dinosaur nuggets!”

“Do you have those?”

“In the freezer, Auntie Nova got them yesterday,” she replied, pulling herself up onto a bar stool precariously. Eddie pulled open the stainless steel door, pulled out the lower drawer upon instruction, and low and behold, there were the dinosaur nuggets. He also snatched a bag of peas. Kids were supposed to eat the green stuff, and in all honesty it would probably do him some good as well. Venom recoiled in the back of his mind. He did not like the green stuff.

“Alright, 11 minutes until dinner,” he said, sliding the tray of shaped chicken into the toaster. He poked around the cupboards, eventually finding the plates and glasses. Milk for the kid, water for himself. He sat next to Luella, looking around. She was still looking at the TV. Turning his head slightly, he noticed a small box sitting on the counter. Holes lined the sides, and words scribbled in rushed sharpie read;  _ live animal _ . Venom perked up at the idea, and with his hearing he confirmed that there was, in fact, something alive in there. Eddie stood up and went over to look at it.

“Oh!” Luella exclaimed, almost toppling out of the barstool as she jumped down and grabbed the box. “This is for Noodle. Auntie Nova came home and left and forgot.” She set the box down in the living room, before disappearing down the hallway. Eddie watched after her curiously.

**What would a noodle want with a rat?** Venom wondered, also curious to know what was going on. 

“You could smell that it was a rat?” Eddie really shouldn’t have been all too surprised. 

Luella shuffled back into the living room, holding a  _ snake _ . It was white, with splashes and spots of brownish yellow covering the long body. He estimated it to be at least a foot and a half long. Its eyes were red, seemingly staring at nothing as the tongue flitted in and out. Luella set the snake down, and it coiled onto itself.

“Is… that Noodle?” Eddie asked, rounding the corner and stooping down to look at the creature, mostly because Venom was still trying to figure out what it was and wanted a closer look. She looked over to him and nodded, smiling as she pulled the furry brown rat out of the small box. She held it in her hands, smiling at it for a moment. The flicking of the snake’s tongue seemed to increase as she set it down about a foot away from where it sat. The mammal sniffed around, and Eddie watched, slightly horrified and unable to look away when it made the mistake of running right past the snake. 

The movement Noodle made was so quick, the only reason he knew something happened was due to the rat’s squeak of pain as the back half of it was engulfed, it’s head and front legs still sticking out. While he watched the snake consume, he wondered if that was what it looked like when they fed. He also noticed how Luella was watching with enthusiasm as she encouraged the snake to down the rest of it so she “could grow up big and strong, like me!” Once the rat was gone, a lump in Noodle’s body the only evidence that it even existed, the child picked the snake up and turned to Eddie.

“You can pet her if you want to, but she has to go back under the light, so she can be warm now,” she said, offering the snake to him. He tentatively stuck a hand out, using only his pointer finger to stroke the dip on the top of Noodle’s head. The snake didn’t really seem like it noticed.

“Thanks…You should probably go put her back now.”  _ Jesus Eddie, you have a flesh eating alien living inside of you, and watching a snake eat a rat made you nervous. _ The timer for the nuggets going off was the perfect distraction. He threw the peas on the microwave, and divided out the food. 6 nuggets and a spoonful of peas for Luella, the remaining peas and nuggets (9 of them) for himself. Luella happily munched away, making her triceratops and t-rex fight for a moment, before devouring both herself. Eddie watched in slight amusement, and turned his attention to his own plate.

**Bite their heads off** Venom purred. He took the symbiote’s suggestion mostly to appease him, chewing thoughtfully.

“Hey Luella,” he started. The child looked at him in response. “The snake eating doesn’t bother you at all? You know, most kids your age would have been scared shi-silly by that.” He was still getting a handle on watching his words around her, not used to being around kids and all.

“Auntie Nova said that it shouldn’t bother me, because the snake is just doing what it was made to do, and eating the mousey makes Noodle happy and healthy, and we like Noodle, so that’s a good thing. But things don’t stay forever either, like the mousey. And that’s just the way things are in life.” She nodded sharply at the final statement, then put a spoonful of peas in her mouth. The way she spoke so eloquently was a bit bewildering, but when he thought about it, she sounded just like Nova. 

They finished up dinner, and at some point while Eddie was cleaning and drying the plates, Luella changed the show from Paw Patrol to something called The Backyardigans. The rest of the night went quietly. Eddie could feel Venom sliding through his memories, trying to figure out what kind of creatures lived on Earth that looked even remotely like the show’s characters. Around 9, Luella had crawled up onto the couch and curled against his side, falling asleep. He didn’t reach for the remote, fearful of disturbing her, so the show continued to run. Background noise to his thoughts.

**You are content.** Venom noted.  **We will have to get one of these.** Eddie just about choked, his connection to the symbiote allowing him to know that he was referring to the child.

“That’s not how that works,” he hissed, careful to keep his voice at a volume that wouldn’t wake Luella. The subject of where humans came from was something that Venom never asked about, and Eddie really didn’t want to explain it. (Even though he figured Venom knew already, considering he had access to all of his memories)

**But, you want one. I can sense that.** Venom was confused at his host’s sudden denial.

“Well, maybe? I hadn’t thought of it for a while.”

**It would make you happy. So we will get you one. We are happy when Eddie is happy.** It seemed so simple to Venom.

“No, no, and no. You can’t just, go out and get a kid. That’s kidnapping. I mean, there’s adoption I guess, but we can’t do that. Kids are a lot of work you know. You have to constantly watch them, especially when they’re little. You gotta feed them and take care of them and clean up after them and stuff.”

**… Like you. You are like a child Eddie.**

“What? If anything, you’re the child here Vee,” Eddie argued, not pleased with the analogy his other was drawing. “You’re always hungry and always pestering me. I clean up after you all the time.”

**_No_ ** **,** Venom countered, squeezing his way into Eddie’s ribcage.  **I take care of you.**

They countered like this for a bit, stopping when Luella shifted in her sleep, worried the bickering had woken her. She remained silent. Eddie went back to scrolling on his phone. At some point, his mind drifted into darkness.

 

* * *

 

_ Jesus, it’s 12:30. Crap crap crap crap!  _ Nova was walking at a brisk clip, just on the edge of breaking into a run as she moved down the hallway to her apartment door. She really,  _ really _ hadn’t meant to stay so late. But this case wasn’t going to be easy in the slightest. She felt bad for imposing on Eddie. She worried that he would be upset with her, maybe enough to cancel their plans for tomorrow. Maybe even enough to stop seeing her all together. She pushed the door open, a thousand apologies on her lips. But the sight that met her eyes stopped her. 

Eddie was asleep on the couch, elbow on the arm rest, head leaning against his palm. Luella was tucked into his other side, curled up like a little ball. The TV glowed,  _ Are you still watching? _ She set her bag and keys down, moving quietly through her living room. Eddie stirred slightly when she went to pick up Luella, who was dead to the world and didn’t even notice. She wrapped her arms around Nova’s neck in her sleep, legs tucking against her sides. Eddie looked at her through bleary eyes, inhaling sharply as he woke. 

“I’ll be right back,” she whispered, then disappeared down the hallway. He looked around slowly, trying to get his bearings. He was still at Nova’s place. Shit. He’d fallen asleep. He was pretty sure that wasn’t something you were suppose to do while babysitting. Venom assured him through their bond that he was watching while his host slept, and would have woken him if something had happened. He sat up when Nova re-entered the room.

“Hey, how’d work go?” he asked, pretending to stretch when really we was wiping the drool away from the corner of his mouth. She flopped onto the couch next to him, clearly frustrated. Hopefully not with him.

“You’d think that after doing this for 5 years, I’d be used to seeing the horrible things that happen to people.” She was silent for a moment, probably contemplating if she was going to tell him more.

“What happened,” he encouraged. “I mean, if you can tell me.” He knew that some case information was sensitive, and that she couldn’t tell him, especially since he was a reporter.

“Guy’s head was torn clean off. The scene was a bloody mess. All over this poor old lady’s balcony no less.” Eddie felt his stomach clench, remembering what had happened earlier that day. “But it’s really weird, the markings on the bones, compared to how clean the edge of the wound was. Removing someone’s head isn’t exactly easy,” she joked, and Eddie tried to swallow around the lump forming in his throat. “Usually we get some knicks, hesitation marks, something.”

“That’s crazy,” Eddie laughed, hoping she wouldn’t catch his nervousness in the dim light of the room. “What is it, that makes the marks on the bones so weird exactly?”

“They look like… teeth marks. But not like any teeth I’ve seen before.” She pulled something out of her purse and turned on a lamp for better lighting. “The head was severed between the C3 and C4,” she started, holding out the bone in her hand. “But look at the C4.” There were smooth grooves running over the top edges, and Eddie was going to assume that it wasn’t a normal occurrence. Especially considering that the smoothness of them were achingly familiar to the fronts of Venom’s teeth. “The way it’s positioned, it’s almost like… Like whatever it was came from above and just chomped his head right off. But that’s crazy. We don’t have anything alive today on land capable of doing this, let alone in San Francisco.” She ran her fingers over the grooves, contemplating. “And we still haven’t found the head.”

**That was from us.** Venom sounded… proud? Eddie sent a wave of reprimand towards him for gloating, to which he got the mental equivalent of having a tongue stuck out at him in response.

“Sounds like you have your work cut out for you on this one,” Eddie said. She smiled at him, setting down the bone.

“I’m so sorry, I should have come home earlier. I was so engrossed in my work, I didn’t even know what time it was when they made me leave.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Eddie waved her off, standing and stretching. She stood with him as they moved towards the door. “You’re dedicated, I get that. One time I spent 3 days living in the woods behind a corporate building to find evidence that they were running a human trafficking ring.”

“I remember reading about that one. Hey, so for our date tomorrow, I was thinking we could do something different. There’s this all you can eat Japanese place by my work. It’s a 30 minute walk, but it’s definitely worth it. They have a lot of kinds of sushi, if you’re into that.”

“No, yeah that sounds great.” Venom was practically purring at the idea of raw fish. “I’ll pick you up at 5, like usual.” He was trying to push down the giddy feeling in his chest that started when Nova had said the word date. He wasn’t in high school anymore dammit. He was a grown man who shouldn’t be getting butterflies just because his neighbor was calling their outing tomorrow a date. When she went in for her usual hand-squeeze, she felt him push something into her palm. It was the 50 she had given him earlier.

“No, that was for watching Luella!” she protested, trying to give it back. He slipped through the door before she could grab him.

“See you tomorrow!” he called through the door.


	4. Carnivore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've gotten more feedback and been inspired to post another chapter even though I wasn't planning to today. Just for clarification, this entire work is a slight slow burn. I don't think Eddie would hardcore just jump into a relationship and show off his symbiote buddy right out of the gate. I'm also building characters and relationship structures throughout the chapters, because I want you guys to have a real feel for them and how they feel towards one another. I do have an overall plot that is somewhat introduced in the next coming chapter, but won't be expanded upon just yet. (And yes, this plot may or may not have to do with the original symbiote I have tagged under characters XD)
> 
> Enjoy the opening symbrock domestic fluff! And the rest!
> 
>  
> 
> (tw for possible implied kidnapping/hostage situation at the end of the chapter)

**Eddie, Eddie… Eddie wake up. We need to eat. We need to get up and eat now.** The only response Venom got from the human was a soft grumble as he rolled over, pulling a pillow over his head, as if that would make the sound go away. Venom shot out a piece of himself, sticking it to the pillow. He lifted it and threw it back down onto Eddie’s head.

“Let me sleep you damn demon!” Eddie sat up to glare at Venom, who’s upper body was now materialized through his stomach. Neither of their gazes wavered.

**“You’ve already slept through the morning”.** Eddie glanced over at his alarm clock. 1:00 blinked red at him.

“Well if you wouldn’t keep me up all night maybe I wouldn’t have to sleep all day.”

**“I offered to let you sleep while we hunted”,** Venom pointed out.

“No man, that’s not cool. You can’t just walk around with my body like it’s some kind of meat suit while I’m unconscious. It ain’t right!”

**“But you are a meat suit Eddie. My favorite meat suit”** , Venom added, moving to brush his cheek against Eddie’s, an action he had acquired through observing Eddie’s memories of Mr. Belvedere. On the rare occasion that the cat wasn’t viewing Eddie as Satan himself, he would jump onto his lap, give him a nuzzle, and then promptly leave.

“Knock it off, I’m getting up,” Eddie grumbled, pushing Venom away by placing his palm flat against his teeth. A move that would have scared any human to death, but not Eddie. Before his bare feet could hit the cold of the hardwood floor, his house shoes appeared, courtesy of the symbiote, who had retreated back into his chest. Eddie pulled on a plain black T-shirt, opting to stay in his boxer shorts for as long as he could get away with it. 

At first, cooking with Venom had been a nightmare of constant nagging, and Venom attempting to force Eddie to eat undercooked or even raw products. The one time he had been successful Eddie became violently ill after, so Venom stopped. While Venom can heal physical wounds and diseases that manifested physically such as cancer, and could even go as far as manipulating the brain to have certain chemical reactions if he tried hard enough, issues like the flu or food poisoning were something he couldn’t really fix per say. He could only help to manage the symptoms as the illness ran its course.

The request for today was bacon and chocolate chip pancakes. Before Eddie could fully realize that he’d forgotten to get an ingredient out, it was already being placed in his hand by an inky black tendril. Venom was always happy to help the cooking time go faster. He brought his face and neck out of Eddie’s shoulder.

**“Flip the pancake Eddie. I’ll to catch it.”** Just as promised, the pancake left the pan and went straight into Venom’s mouth. This amused Eddie, which made his other quite happy. When he was finished, he sat on the couch to flip through news stations and eat, occasionally holding up a piece of bacon for Venom to snatch, teeth dangerously close to his fingers. But he trusted Venom, and knew that any mistake in where he bit down could be easily fixed. He groaned when he read the roller for the local station. 

_ Human body found, headless, with no evidence to suggest who or what could have done this. Police are still looking for the head, and a forensic anthropologist has been assigned to the case. More details to come later. _

“See, we gotta be more careful Vee, especially with someone like Nova trying to track us down. What happens if we get caught?” Eddie chided, looking to Venom behind his shoulder. He tilted his head.

**“We eat them.”**

“No, they take us away to be poked and prodded at. Maybe they’d even take you away from me. Which is not the goal here.”

**“Goal is to eat bad guys, don’t get caught. Won’t let them take us apart.”**

“That’s right buddy. Come on, I have an article to write before going out to dinner.”

 

* * *

 

At 4:53 his phone buzzed. A text from Nova.

_ Had to run back to work after taking Luella home. Taking longer than I thought. Here’s the address of the place I was talking about. Hopefully by the time you’re there I’ll be finished. See you there! _

Eddie typed the address into maps. As Nova said yesterday, it was going to be a 30 minute walk. He thought for a second. He still had to finish the last paragraph of his article. Writing professionally is pretty difficult when your alien roommate insists that you leave the TV on for them. Because then you’ll get distracted yourself when he laughs, and you need to know what was so funny. (It was usually something violent) If he could just finish this paper before 5:15, then he could take his bike and still get there on time. Venom thrummed. He loved riding on the bike. So he promised to sit in silence while Eddie finished writing the article that was due tomorrow.

Eddie hit the final punctuation harshly with his index finger, leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed behind his head. 5:10. Which was good, considering it gave him time to put on jeans and brush his teeth before leaving. He slipped on his jacket as he straddled his bike, kicking the stand and reeving up. 

He pulled up against the curb just in time to see Nova scurrying down the street. She’d left her lab coat on in her rush to get there on time. Eddie swung off his bike and jogged up to her. Nova was so focused on her target she didn’t notice him until he was directly in front of her. She would have run into him his he hadn’t put his palms on her shoulders to hold her back.

“You weren’t waiting for me were you? I told them I had reservations so they would let me leave, but even then I still had to run here part of the way.” Her voice seemed breathy, a result of the full on sprint she’d used to eat up the length of 2 blocks.

“Nah, I just got here,” he jabbed a thumb towards his bike. “I had it a little easier than you did though.” He opened the door, and she slipped in under his arm. They took their seats, and ordered their first round of sushi. Nova got an alaska roll and a bowl of miso soup. Eddie opted for something with raw eel in it at his symbiote’s request, and some gyoza for himself.

“So, I didn’t get to ask you last night,” Nova started, stirring the tofu and seaweed in her soup gently. “How was Luella? Hopefully she wasn’t too much trouble for you.”

“No, she was fine,” he replied after swallowing a hunk of pork dumpling. “She watched her TV show, showed me the wonders of watching a snake eat a rat whole, ate dinosaur nuggets. The usual. I was a little surprised about the whole snake thing though. How’d you end up with a name as cute as Noodle for a snake anyways?”

“That’s what Luella called her when I brought her home. ‘That’s a weird looking noodle you have there Auntie Nova,’ she said. And it just kind of stuck from there I guess. There aren’t any rules saying that snakes can’t have cute names you know,” she added, popping a sushi into her mouth via chopstick. Eddie eyed his chopsticks uncomfortably, before deciding on using his fingers. No sense in embarrassing himself by throwing food across the room because he was incapable of understanding how to pick up something with sticks.

“Never said there was,” he smiled, resting a hand on the table. Nova looked at it for a second, contemplating something. She reached across the table and placed her hand on top of his. He hissed involuntarily at how cold they were, and she drew away, blushing. He grabbed them and yanked them back before he could think about it.

“You’re hands are freezing,” he pointed out, letting her hands rest on his palms in the middle of the table.

“It’s because I spent too much time with dead people,” she joked. After a moment he let her have the appendages back so they could return to eating. They ordered another round.

“Speaking of dead people, why’d they have to call you back in today?” 

Nova chewed thoughtfully.

“Usually talking about bodies puts people off their meals. You sure you wanna ask?”

“Doesn’t bother me any.” Eddie ate another sushi to prove his point.

“We took some samples from the body yesterday. You know, before we removed the tissue,” Nova looked at him, making sure he wasn’t uncomfortable before continuing. “The samples included particles from the wound, his clothing, things like that. To see if whatever killed him left something behind.”

“So you’ve decided that the killer is a what, not a who?”

**I’m a who, not a ‘what’,** Venom protested from somewhere deep in Eddie’s mind.

“I’ve seen some horrible shit Eddie. I’ve seen what humans can do to each other, in the worst possible ways. But this…” she inhaled and took another bite of food. “The results from the lab came in when I got home with Luella. They needed me to come in to look at it right away.” Eddie could feel his heart hammering. Venom wrapped himself around the offending organ, attempting to force it to beat at a normal pace. 

“What did the reports say,” he prodded, hoping his career choice of investigative reporting was enough of an excuse for his adamant curiosity. 

“It was saliva, human, but also not human,” she chewed for a moment, deciding how to best explain this to someone who she could assume wasn’t well versed in biology. “Saliva is… unique to its species.”

“So you can tell if someone was bit by a dog or bit by a person based on the spit?”

“Basically. Difference in the presence of amylase and all that.” She could see that she was starting to loose him at that, so she continued on to the main point, “The epithelial cells in it matched with what we would consider human. But everything else is off the charts. A ridiculously high concentration of amylase, an exceptionally noticeable increase in the salivary calcium and phosphate levels.” She’d lost him again. “The only human bits we found were a few epithelial cells. And we’re still trying to determine if those came from the killer or the victim.”

“That’s… a lot…” Eddie was still trying to process the information, Venom buzzing around his brain, trying to make any connections that he could between Eddie’s thoughts.  _ What if they find out the cells aren’t from the victim. They’ll be out, looking for a non-human human. That’s us Vee. _ Over time Eddie had gotten better at communicating with Venom through thought, though they both preferred it when he could talk out loud.

**They won’t be able to find us. Still don’t know what to look for exactly.**

“You’re telling me. Honestly, I have no idea how we’re gonna get this case to go anywhere with what we’ve got, which isn’t much. Teeth marks and saliva that don’t match anything on record, no weapon. Not another trace left behind.” Nova sipped her drink, finished off her second order, and called it quits. Eddie had already put in a slip for his third round, so they continued talking while they waited. Nova talked about Luella when she wasn’t talking about work.

“She talks very adult,” Eddie mentioned as he finished his plate, moving to stand. “She knows a lot about things.”

“Yeah,” Nova laughed, standing as well. “Orion and I never really got into the whole ‘baby-talk’ thing. I’ve always spoken to her they way I would speak to anyone else. At first I would have to stop to explain everything, and sometimes I still do, but she’s a smart kid. Picks up on things fast. Her teacher quite honestly doesn’t know what to do with her sometimes.” They walked outside, and Eddie started heading towards his bike. He looked a Nova expectantly.

“I’m not going to make you walk all the way home by yourself,” he said, tossing her his helmet. He didn’t need it anyways.

“You want me to get on  _ that _ ? Do you know how many bodies I’ve examined from motorcycle wrecks? Those things are death traps,” she said, but she had managed to catch the helmet.

“Not with me they aren’t. Come on, hop on the back.” Eddie had always been a good rider, but even more so now that he had Venom’s help, reaction time, and healing as a backup just in case. Nova reluctantly placed the helmet over her head and straddled the back of the bike. “Hold on,” was the only warning she got before they took off. Her arms wrapped around his torso and squeezed, holding on for dear life. The only thing keeping Eddie breathing was Venom’s presence pushing his ribcage out against her iron grip, just enough so that his lungs could still function.

Nova didn’t even notice when they came to a stop. She had her head tucked down, her eyes squeezed shut, her death grip unrelenting until Eddie reached down and gently pried her clenched fists off the front of his shirt. Slowly, she began to relax behind him. Eddie was more than happy to wait for her to decide she was comfortable enough to get off the bike.

“That wasn’t so bad was it?” he asked, turning to her after they’d gotten off and headed into the apartment.

“Don’t expect me to ask to do it again,” she grumbled, embarrassed about her panic. He laughed and swung an arm over her shoulders in a sideways sort of hug. She huffed but didn’t pull away, his laughter eventually spreading over to her until they were both laughing like idiots. They stopped at the end of the hall, between their doorways.

“Have a good night,” Eddie smiled, reaching out for their well practiced hand squeeze that always came after their outings. She took him completely by surprise when she used the grip to pull him down as she pushed up onto her toes, and pressed her lips to his. The kiss was warm, fleeting, and he barely had time to process what had happened before it was over.

“You too,” Nova replied, smiling back. She slid her key into the lock and pushed the door shut behind her. It was a warm, silly, irrational thing she was feeling, but she wouldn’t dwell on it now. She paid the sitter, and sent her on her way before going through the nightly routine with Luella that she had grown so accustomed to. Finish whatever show or movie she had been watching, stand side by side in front of the bathroom sink (Luella needed to stand on a little wooden stool though) and brush their teeth together, get into pajamas, then off to bed. 9 times out of 10 Nova ended up reading Luella a story, or humming her a song before she left the room.

Nova padded her way down the hallway and into her own room, flipping off Noodle’s daytime lights and turning on the infrared night lights before slipping under her heavy pile of blankets, letting the weight sooth her nerves and relax her muscles. For a few moments, her mind ran through the case, then it moved over to thoughts about Eddie, but eventually sleep overtook her.

 

* * *

 

Eddie shot up in bed, twitching as Venom stirred, coating his skin in a thin layer of black. There was a noise, coming from outside the apartment.

**Someone’s trying to break in,** Venom hissed. Eddie wasn’t sure if his legs were moving at his command or at the symbiote’s, but he was outside now, peering down the alleyway behind his building. Sure enough, there was a man, clad in all black and sporting a ski mask, attempting to pry open a window. Now that Eddie was fully awake and thinking about what was going on, he realized that it was one of Nova’s windows. If her apartment was laid out similarly to his own, it was probably her bedroom window too. Venom snarled as Eddie’s thoughts were relayed to him, anger swirled by hints of panic. He knew Eddie hated fighting so close to home, but the other option was to let the guy break into Nova’s apartment and do who knows what.

Eddie swears he just intended to scare the guy off, but when rope and a gun fell out of his bag, he lost it, along with his minute control of Venom. The man was gone without so much of a trace, and the alien thrummed happily as he began to recede back into his human host. He stopped halfway through when there was a soft noise behind them. Eddie turned, face exposed, arms and chest still coated in black, his mind going blank with fear from what he saw.

Nova was standing at the mouth of the alley in an oversized grey T-shirt. The bright red paint on her toes stood out against the dark asphalt as she stood with her heels off the ground, one leg slightly behind the other, contemplating fight or flight. There was a shiny metal baseball bat held up and to the side, ready to strike.

“Eddie?”


	5. We Are Venom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy smokes, you guys are awesome with all of your comments and support for this! But it's time I was honest: You've all been spoiled with the frequency of my updates! I had 5 chapters pre-written before I started posting, so this is my last pre-written chapter! Unfortunately, I am a college student with papers due and finals coming up. There's a very small possibility I'll be able to write some tomorrow, but probably not a full chapter's worth, so expect updates to slow to once or twice a week until I'm through with finals!  
> Again, I love that you guys love this! So please bear with me through this slow update period.
> 
> I felt bad about leaving you with a cliff hanger, so here we go. Nova gets to meet Venom!

It took a solid 10 minutes of convincing to get where they were now, which was in Nova’s living room, with Eddie sitting on the couch, and Nova pacing around in front of the TV. Venom was still wrapped around his chest in a makeshift shirt that moved occasionally. The night shirt Nova was wearing went down to her knees, leaving Eddie to guess whether or not she had on shorts underneath. She stopped dead center in front of him, eyeing his shirt suspiciously.

“It’s pretty dark out,” he started. “Are you sure…”

“I know what I saw Eddie,” she cut him off. “Don’t try to lie to me. What. Just. Happened.” She hissed, leaning forward so their noses were almost touching, her gaze cutting through his eyes and into his soul. He let out a deep sigh.

“Promise you won’t freak out if I show you?” he asked. She pulled away from him.

“If I was going to freak out, I would have done it in the alley,” she replied. “Unless my brain is still in shock. In that case, give me a 20 minute margin to lose my shit.” She almost laughed, and Eddie was beginning to wonder when she would crack.

“Alright, Vee, you can come out now.” The inky blackness pooled in the dip between his collarbone and shoulder, rippling, before extending and molding into Venom’s neck and face. He bobbed off to the side of Eddie, grinning, but thankfully keeping his tongue behind his multitude of teeth. His eyes narrowed and widened as he looked at Nova. It was the first time he’d seen her and her apartment through his own eyes.

“What is that?” she asked. Surprisingly, she didn’t pull away when Venom stretched his face closer. If anything, Eddie swore he saw her lean in closer.

**“Not what. Who,”** Venom replied, reminiscent of one of the first conversations he’d had with Eddie back in the old apartment. Nova tilted her head.

“Who, then.”

**“I am Venom,”** he turned to look at Eddie. **“We are Venom.”**

“You aren’t human,” Nova stated.

**“Klyntar. I am what you would call an alien.”**

“Something tells me this is going to be a long story,” Nova said, sitting next to Eddie on the couch. Eddie was between her and Venom, but the symbiote had wrapped himself so he was still looking at Nova, his tongue snaking out a bit.

 

* * *

 

Nova had listened, mostly quiet while Eddie told the story of how his relationship with Venom came to be. Occasionally she would ask a clarifying question, but other than that she just seemed to be processing the information. He stopped at the part when Carlton Drake’s rocket exploded, leaving her room to ask another question. He didn’t really want to delve into the two weeks he spent thinking Venom was gone for good anyways.

“He has a sister, Cynthia Drake,” she said, shifting to sit with her legs tucked under her and to the side. Eddie was caught off guard by the statement.

“How would you…?”

“I deal with human remains Eddie. Well, I wouldn’t really call what Drake had left remains. More like, dust and a few bone shards really. We had to release any human bits we found to the next of kin, which happened to be his sister. Who most people didn’t actually know about until we tracked her down. She got his whole estate after the accident, companies and everything. But no one has heard anything about it since, so we figured she just shut it all down.”

Eddie looked down, contemplating for a moment. He’d never considered that Drake’s company would go to someone else. Honestly he just thought that the government would just shut the whole thing down. Not that the government ever did anything it should do. Nova stood up again and walked around the the side that Venom was sticking out of, looking as if she might reach her hand out to touch him, but she hesitated.

“You still in shock, or are you somehow okay with all of this?” Eddie asked, turning his body to face where she stood.

“You said he has to eat… what is it, people specifically? Or just anything that’s living?”

**“Human brains seem to be especially necessary in my regenerative abilities. There is a chemical there I can’t name.”**

“Regenerative abilities?” Nova stepped forward, eyeing his teeth, but she leaned closer to the alien nonetheless.

“Yeah,” Eddie scratched the back of his head. “I kind of um… died? In the fight with Drake and Riot. But Vee fixed it up. There were a couple incidents where he had to patch me up, actually.”

**“Fixing this fragile human takes energy,”** Venom hissed, poking at Eddie’s temple with a stray tendril. **“We need that energy replenished regularly.”** Eddie swatted it away, mumbling something along the lines of ‘I’ll show you fragile’ and ‘can’t even breathe air without my help’. Nova raised an eyebrow.

“And that noise outside of my window. Was it you? What were you doing outside my window to begin with?” She asked, looking more at Venom than she was at Eddie. Eddie answered before Venom could open his mouth.

“Actually that wasn’t us. There was a burglar trying to get in. The noise woke us up too, so we went to check it out,” he explained. Nova definitely took note of the way he said ‘us’ and ‘we’.

“Okay…. So what happened to the burglar then?” she asked, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer. There were no other people in the alley besides Eddie when she got there.

**“We ate him.”** Venom hissed when Eddie smacked him upside the head, his hand disappearing into one side of the mass and coming out of the other, the blackness shifting as his hand moved through. **Did you want to lie to her Eddie? She already knows everything. It’s up to her as to whether or not she rejects us now,** Venom thought, curling himself around Eddie’s neck and shoulders and draping down like a scarf. Eddie huffed and crossed his arms.

“Yeah, we did. He had rope and a gun in the bag. Who knows what he was thinking,” he looked Nova in the eyes. There wasn’t any true fear there, not that he could see. And he’d gotten very good and reading people over his reporting years. There was confusion, and a hint of curiosity, but she didn’t seem to be _scared_ of him, of them. Here he was, in her house with an alien draping around him and reaching tendrils around her apartment, exploring like an animal who’d just been brought into its new home, and this woman didn’t seem to mind at all.

“I don’t even know what _you_ were thinking Nova,” he added. “You went outside with a baseball bat, to, what exactly?”

“I- I could have handled it!” she sputtered. “You think a single woman living in San Francisco with her 6-year-old niece wouldn’t know how to defend herself?” She puffed a little and the insult, crossing her arms.

**“This wouldn’t have stopped a bullet,”** Venom sneered, a thin curl of his mass brushing past the metal of the bat as he stretched his face away from Eddie, now nose to nose with Nova. Her attempt to make herself seem tough amused him on some level. What females of the human species lacked in general size, he’d come to conclude, they’d gained in intelligence and overall feistiness. This conclusion was made through observation (ie watching television) and from his brief bonding with Anne. She had seemed much more fragile than Eddie at the time, but in the end she’d put up a good fight, and proved herself more than helpful.

Nova looked up into Venom’s curved, swirling eyes. Her brows were furrowed. She was attempting to consume her lower lip, teeth much to dull for the job scraping against the flesh there. It was something Eddie did often, and Venom found it to be an endearing human trait. She seemed to be tossing an idea around in her mind, like she either wanted to say something, or do something. Venom pulled back and lifted so his head was higher than hers, observing. She started to reach her hand forward, looking at Eddie.

“May I?” she asked, pausing the momentum of her hand. Eddie shrugged and laughed.

“I only have so much control over him you know. If you lose that hand, it’s not on me,” he joked.

**“We like Nova. I wouldn’t bite her hand off,”** Venom offered, and Eddie could feel that the symbiote was trying to be reassuring. Something crossed her eyes, but she pushed the hand forward until her palm was resting between Venom’s eyes. He narrowed them to little slits, his version of having them closed, and leaned into the touch. Eddie could feel a ghosting of pressure on his forehead, and he watched curiously.

Nova brushed her fingers up, stretching her arm, and Venom dipped his head down so she could reach the top. A laugh bubbled up from her lips when her hand sunk right into the black mass when she pushed. Venom’s skin, if you could call it that, felt like something akin to leather and velvet, warm to the touch. Pulling her hand away left her fingers slightly chilled, but dry despite his glossy, wet appearance.

She even dared to brush them against his teeth, fingertips dipping between the grooves. Recognition lit her face, and she moved quickly to grab something off of the coffee table. It was the vertebrate she had shown them earlier. Nova pressed the flat side of the C4 up against Venom’s teeth.

The markings lined up like puzzle pieces.

“You’re the one who bit the head off of that guy, aren’t you?” she asked, setting it back down, using her free hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. She sounded more annoyed than anything.

**“Yes, but he was bad. He was going to rob that old lady’s place.”** Venom’s tongue slipped from between his teeth, almost catching the edge of Nova’s cheek with it. Nova took one last look at his teeth, before turning her back to Venom and heading back to the couch.

“You aren’t scared of us?” Eddie asked as she sat back down next to him. Seeing her turn her back on the alien in the room was the last thing Eddie expected Nova to do. Venom had gone back to touching everything and anything in the apartment he could see, careful not to knock over the skeleton models. Nova had told Eddie that they were very much real, and she’d spent hours putting them together herself.

“Confused. Frustrated, maybe. But not scared,” she replied, looking him in the eyes. “I mean, I’m a bit concerned with the eating people part. We have a justice system here you know. And I don’t even know where to go with this case now that I know what happened.”

“Eating people doing bad things is better than just eating anybody walking down the street,” Eddie offered, shrugging. “I use to struggle with it a lot at first. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I like doing it, because I really don’t. But it keeps the big guy happy and away from my organs, so I turn a blind eye to it.”

**“You still complain about it a lot,”** Venom grumbled, making his way over to the piano and instruments. He lifted the lid, and rubbed a few tendrils across the smooth material of the keys. Nova opened her mouth to stop him, but he’d already pressed down on several of them at once, creating a cacophony of sound that echoed around the apartment. The frequency didn’t bother him, and he seemed to find it amusing, so he repeated the action, harder, and with more keys at once. The noise was so loud that no one heard the little footsteps heading down the hallway.

By the time they noticed Luella had seen them, it was too late. The child rubbed her eyes sleepily, and made a questioning noise, looking to Nova.

“That’s a really weird looking snake,” she said, turning to look at Venom, then to Eddie. “Mr. Brock, why is there a big snake attached to you?”

 

* * *

 

In all honesty, explaining to concept of Venom in less than 5 minutes to a 6-year-old was way less complicated than the 2 hours they’d spent explaining it to a fully grown adult. Nova took her back to bed after she promised that she understood that Venom was a special secret that couldn't be talked about to _anyone_.

“Hopefully by morning she’ll think it was all a dream,” Nova commented as she walked with Eddie to the door.

“Maybe you’ll think it was a dream too,” Eddie replied, secretly hoping that it would be true, but he knew that things never worked out the way he wanted them to. On some level, it was a relief to have Nova know. Even though he hadn’t been lying to her per say, he was still hiding things from her. And he knew from personal experience that hiding things can ruin a relationship before it’s even started.

“Yeah, maybe. Not that I would tell anyone,” Nova laughed, opening the door. “Oh, since you’re here I might as well ask you now. I was going to take Luella out on Sunday, to the park and to get ice cream. She asked me if I would see if you wanted to go to. I told her you probably couldn’t, but she wanted me to ask anyways.”

“Even after all of this, you still want me hanging around?” Eddie was honestly shocked. He figured after tonight he’d be lucking to get an awkward, neighborly nod of acknowledgment from Nova.

“Well yeah, I don’t see why not.”

“The whole alien thing doesn’t put you off at all?” he gestured to his shirt, which had developed eyes right on the chest.

“I think it’s kind of sweet actually, the way Venom chose you over everything else. It’s rare to find a commitment like that. The whole eating people think might be a bit of a problem though, but that’s a problem for later, when it’s not 4:00 in the morning.”

“Well okay then,” Eddie smiled, heading through the doorway. “I’ll see you on Sunday.”

**“** **_We’ll_ ** **see you on Sunday.”**

Nova laughed.

“I’ll see you _both_ on Sunday.”

 


	6. Nightengale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back from the dead! Sorry for such a huge gap, but life happens, and honestly this chapter fought me tooth and nail throughout the process of writing it. Hopefully it turned out okay!

**Eddie, our body needs sleep,** Venom stated, prodding at his host’s ribcage.

“Yeah buddy, I know,” Eddie sighed and leaned away from the dull glow of his laptop screen. It was 7:00am. He’d been digging for information regarding Cynthia Drake and the fate of The Life Foundation for 3 hours. He knew he wasn’t going get any good sleep unless he found _something_ to confirm or deny his unease.

**Eddieeee...** Venom’s whine echoed through his skull as little tendrils manifested through his torso and began to wrap around his midsection. Black lines criss-crossed his bare chest and stomach, almost to the point he couldn’t see his own skin anymore.

“Fine… _Fine_. We’ll go to bed… Would you stop doing that?” he gestured helplessly to his black mummy wrappings. Venom manifested a smaller, less toothy version of his head out of his chest.

**“It’s a hug Eddie,”** Venom said, brushing the spot where his nose would be against Eddie’s chin. Eddie brushed him away.

“Whatever you say.” He shut his laptop, making sure to clear the history first. He didn’t know what kind of records would have been kept by The Life Foundation during the transfer, but he certainly didn’t want to tip them off to the fact they were being looked into by the reason they were shut down in the first place. Venom slowly pulled back into Eddie’s skin as they flopped on top of the duvet and fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

The buzz of his phone vibrating woke them up. Eddie could tell that Venom had gone into a mini staysis, judging by the groggy pull at the area where his spine connected to his skull. _Frenum magnum_ , Nova had informed him, was the name of one of the symbiote’s favorite resting places.

Anne was calling him.

His hand smacked down on the phone in his effort to pick it up, almost causing it to go sliding off the bedside table and onto the floor. Venom caught it before it could tip over the edge, and brought it to Eddie’s face.

“Henllo?” Eddie answered, not at all hiding the fact he’d been sleeping. _What time is it anyways?_ He looked at the phone screen. _11:00am… Only 4 hours of sleep. Great._

“Hey! Eddie, you were sleeping weren’t you?” Anne asked. He could tell she was fully awake, probably been up since the time he went to bed.

“Yeah, I was.” She started to apologize to him, and offered to hang up but he cut her off. “No it’s fine, don’t worry about it. I need to get up anyways.” Venom protested, suggesting that they hang up and go back to sleep.

“I actually called to see if you wanted to come over to dinner, see how you’re doing and all,” Anne said, cheerfully, with no hint of a hidden meaning behind inviting him over for dinner. The four of them, Anne, Dan, Eddie, and Venom, all had a good relationship going. Bygones were bygones and all that.

“Sure, dinner sounds good. I swear I’ll remember to bring the desert intact this time,” he mentally poked at Venom, who conjured up the memory of how good that german chocolate cake tasted when they ate it in one bite the second they got it out of the fridge to take it to Anne’s.

**“No promises from me,”** Venom said, outloud for Anne’s benefit. Her laugh tinkled across the line.

“How about tomorrow? Dan and I both have Sundays off, so you can come by whenever you’re ready.”

“Actually, I have plans tomorrow,” Eddie remembered his promise to go with Nova and Luella to the park. The fact that Nova wanted him around them after last night was still throwing him for a loop.

“Oh! Is it with that one girl… Nova? The anthropologist you’ve been seeing?” Eddie had mentioned Nova to Anne and Dan on occasion.

“Nova asked me to go out with her and her niece, Luella tomorrow, yeah,” he explained.

“Oh that’s great Eddie,” Anne started. He could people talking in the background, lawyer talk. She must have been on a break at work when she called. “You can bring them to dinner too.” Someone started talking to Anne, but Eddie couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“No, I don’t think…” Eddie started, but Anne cut off his protests.

“I’ve gotta run, I’ll see you all tomorrow, how about 6? Okay see you at 6!” With that, she hung up. Eddie groaned and threw his phone haphazardly on the empty side of the bed.

**I’m hurt Eddie. You told Anne that Nova asked** **_you_ ** **to go to the park tomorrow. She asked** **_us_ ** **.** Venom was pushing against his skull to express his disdain. Eddie closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, knowing he wouldn’t be going back to sleep anytime soon.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry Vee.”

**Sorry isn’t good enough.**

“It isn’t, is it?” Sarcasm was smeared into his tone. “And what could I possibly do to make you feel better big guy?” He looked at where Venom’s had manifested in his hand, nothing more than a black blob with white eyes in the center of his palm.

**“Tots for breakfast. And I get to watch cartoons while we eat.”** Venom’s voice was serious, but Eddie couldn’t help laughing as he got out of bed and threw on a shirt. It was hilarious actually, how this horrifying, intimidating creature from outer space gets upset when he doesn’t feel included. It was even more hilarious that he demanded tater tots and cartoons as collateral for his hurt feelings.

“You are one needy little shit, you know that?”

Venom huffed, and retreated up Eddie’s arm.

Nova seemed to have no problem going with Eddie and Venom to Anne’s place for a Sunday dinner. She even offered to bring something herself, which Eddie assured her wasn’t necessary. Despite the fact that he was running on 4 hours of sleep, he was determined to get back on his laptop to search for information. Venom relented his arguments when Eddie let him use Netflix to turn on The Magic School Bus. Watching it made Venom feel smart, especially when a situation arose where the scientific information of the show was useful. So, Eddie sat at the kitchen table, with Venom extended across the space between the dining area and living room, so he could rest his head on the back of the couch to watch the TV.

After what felt like an eternity of digging, he finally found a limited article about The Life Foundation written about 2 months after the explosion. There was a somewhat blurry photo of a woman who definitely looked like she could be related to Carlton Drake, with caramel skin and straight black hair. It read:

 

_Following the tragic explosion of a Life Foundation Rocket, and the subsequent uncovering of the horrific acts taking place in the Carlton Drake’s metaphorical basement, the task of picking up the broken pieces of what was once a world renowned company is in the hands of his twin sister, Cynthia Drake. Cynthia says she has plans to continue her brother’s pharmaceutical and cancer research efforts in a more ethical manor, but plans to shut down The Life Foundation’s Space Exploration Program entirely._

 

Beyond the one paragraph article, he wasn’t able to find much else. Cynthia Drake didn’t seem to have any social media accounts open that he could find, and no contact information he could gather from the internet. But the day was still young. Only 3:00pm. Eddie pulled on his mental connection with Venom in order to draw his attention away from the television.

“You wanna go visit Ms. Chen?”

 

* * *

 

The rest of the day went by quickly, and soon enough, it was Sunday morning. Eddie sleep-waddled into the bathroom, took his routine piss, brushed his teeth, and hopped in the shower. Eddie could feel Venom thrumming with excitement. Excitement for spending the day with Nova now that she knows about him, and excitement for Dan’s cooking. The man really was the complete package.

**Not that we don’t like our cooking Eddie,** Venom reassured. Eddie gave a grunt in response. Showering with Venom wasn’t as weird as it used to be. And it definitely wasn’t weird when the symbiote helped him reach the spots on his back he couldn’t reach, or pointed out when he missed a soap bubble on his bum.

Eddie had come to terms with his alien hitchhiker experiencing everything with him. Even got him to help out that time he ate way too much cheese and made himself constipated last month. It was like, having an extremely comfortable, intimate relationship with a friend, really. And he’d rather have help than have hemorrhoids. Eddie stepped out of the bathroom, and got dressed. Jeans, shirt, leather jacket. The usual. He downed a granola bar and headed out the door.

Like clockwork, Eddie heard Nova pound her way down the hallway to get to the door before Luella did. Judging from the way she was basically holding the child back with her leg by the time she answered the door, Luella had gotten close to opening it first this time.

“Maybe I should start texting you before I come over so you can just be at the door before she can hear me knock,” Eddie smiled, noticing that she was wearing the same outfit from their first date, but she left her hair down this time. The soft, champagne blonde hair feathered and curled to frame her face.

“Oh no, this little bat can hear it when you open _your_ door. She knows you’re coming before you’ve even knocked,” Nova huffed. Luella gave a shy grin from behind her aunt’s leg. “Alright then, missy miss. Park or ice cream first?”

“Ice cream!” Luella bounded out the door with a cry, leaving Nova to scramble to grab her purse, lock the door, and pursue her out of the building. Eddie followed suit. Getting the ice cream itself was pretty uneventful. Luella wanted cookie dough, Nova strawberry, and Eddie let Venom talk him into rocky road.

Watching Luella try to eat said ice cream however, was an event in and of itself. Just when she had the dripping under control on one side, the other side would start, and Nova would try to help, but Luella accused her of being a fatty trying to steal her ice cream, so Nova threw her hands up and decided to just let her deal with it. She would make her wash her hands when they got to the park. Luella bounded and twirled on the sidewalk ahead of them and into the park. She immediately made her way to the monkey bars and started swinging across them. Nova took a seat on a nearby bench, and Eddie sat down next to her.

“So, how are you two doing today?” she asked, crossing her legs and shoving her hands down between her thighs, either out of nervousness or to keep them warm.

**“I’m enjoying this very much actually,”** a voice came from the collar of Eddie’s jacket. Eddie sucked in a sharp breathe when he saw Nova’s initial startled jump. She peered over into his jacket to find two little eyes looking up at her from a black blob on his neck.

“Vee, you can’t do that, someone could see you,” Eddie scolded. Venom blinked twice before disappearing back into his skin. Nova raised an eyebrow.

“So, it was most definitely all real then,” she commented. “Either that, or I’m completely delusional.”

“No, he’s definitely real,” Eddie replied, shifting on the bench so he was more comfortable. “A real pain in the ass.” Eddie felt a thump in his side at his remark, causing his body to push to one side, closer to Nova. She laughed at the antics.

“You refer to Venom as a ‘he’. Isn’t his race technically just agender blobs though? Or did I misunderstand when you were explaining?”

“Ahhhh…. I’m not really sure how to explain it, I can just, feel that he prefers to be male I guess.” Venom was pulling at the muscles in his lips, trying to get Eddie to let him speak through his mouth. Eddie groaned internally. Venom had done this once before, when he wanted to talk to Miss Chen, but it was too busy in her store for him to come out. It was a strange sensation, and it affected his voice slightly. But, Venom would be better equipped to explain his thoughts on gender rather than having Eddie butcher it and leave Nova more confused.

“I think he actually wants to tell you himself, through me.”

“What do you mean, through you?”

“ **I h** av **e the ca** pabi **lity to** ma **nip** ula **te Ed** di **e’s** bo **dy if** he **al** lo **ws it.** ” The words were coming from Eddie’s mouth, but she could tell they weren’t his own. They were slightly slurred, with the voice unable to decide what timber to stay in. “ **W** her **e I c** ome **fr** o **m, no, we d** on **’t ha** v **e** ge **nders. But** we **can a** ssu **me the g** ende **r char** acter **ist** ic **s of** ou **r ho** st **s.** Ed **die is** wh **at you hu** ma **ns co** nsid **er to be ‘m** ale’ **, so t** hat **is** wh **at I** hav **e de** cide **d to** be **. E** ven **if I ha** d **to r** esi **de in a d** iffere **nt** ho **st, I w** oul **d still** se **e my** sel **f as a** ‘he **’ no** ma **tter th** at **h** os **t’s g** end **er be** cau **se of h** o **w c** lose **ly I am** bon **ded with E** ddi **e. Gen** der i **tse** lf h **olds no s** igni **ficant va** lu **e to me a** lo **ne, but it s** eem **s, for t** he **m** os **t p** ar **t, to** mak **e it less c** ompli **c** ate **d for** me **to ha** v **e on** e, **so I d** o **.** ”

“We must seem very primitive to you, huh?” Nova mused. Eddie coughed, regaining control of his voice.

“Nah, not primitive, just weird,” he objected.

“Auntie Nova! Mr. Brock! Watch this!” Luella had managed to climb her way to the top of the gym set, and was currently positioning herself on top of the monkey bars. Nova had jumped up.

“Luella, you be careful! Get down off of that,” she started making her way across the small grassy area and over to the rubber ground of the play area. By now, Luella was on the edge of the far end, and she was leaning herself backwards over the edge.

**Eddie, the child will harm herself if she falls from this height.** Venom sounded slightly panicked, like he wanted to help but wasn’t sure how. But now, Eddie could see what she was trying to do. As her torso pushed back, her knees hooked onto the bar. She laughed as her arms swung below her, and the world turned upside-down.

“Nah bud, she’s fine. Nova may have had a heart attack though.” Eddie could hear Nova scolding Luella for scaring her, but there was a laugh behind it. The spent the better part of an hour watching the child swing her way around the play set, running up and down ladders and stairs, going head first down the slides. She even managed to rope Eddie and Nova into a game of tag. While chasing Nova, he may or may not have used Venom to cheat by extending a small tendril out of his fingers to close the distance from them to her shoulder. She knew he cheated, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt like this; bubbly, happy, worry-free.

Nova knew Luella was happy too. She hadn’t laughed this much in the year since her father passed. Sure, they’d had good times together, but it was nice to see her being a kid again. She watched as Eddie let Luella tackle him to the ground, even giggled at his horrible attempt of faking an injury. If things could stay like this forever, she’d be more than content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, kind of used space in this chapter to explain my personal views on Venom being male. This is my interpretation, not saying any others are wrong! But for my purposes, Venom is a he/him!


End file.
